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Moscow, Oct 18 (PTI) India and Russia today signed a watershed agreement for the joint development and production of the futuristic fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGA).
Defence Minister A K Antony, who co-chaired the Indo-Russian inter-governmental commission on military technical cooperation, dubbed it as a “landmark" pact in the six-decade-long defence cooperation with Russia.Russian Military-Technical Cooperation said on Thursday.
“We have signed an agreement on cooperation in the development and production of an advanced multi-purpose fighter aircraft," the spokesman said. “This document will allow our countries to implement a project that envisions equal-share financing and engineering efforts in the creation of a fifth-generation fighter."
Russia and India also signed an agreement on joint production of spare parts for Su-30 Flanker fighters.Last week, Moscow and New Delhi signed a $1.6 billion contract for the supply of 40 Russian Su-30 fighter assembly sets to India by 2010 as a compliment to the contract on licensed production of 140 Su-30MKIs in India, which was signed in December 2000.
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who attended the signing ceremony on Thursday together with his Indian counterpart, A. K. Antony, praised the current level of bilateral military-technical cooperation.
“Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation is strategic in nature and has been developing dynamically and steadily," the Russian minister said, adding that other cooperation projects included licensed production of T-90S tanks, Brahmos missiles, and frigates.
Joint Russian-Indian special tactical counter-terrorism exercise, INDRA-2007, was hosted by the Russian 76th Guards Air Assault Division at its Pskov training center. The exercise involved units from the Russian Airborne Troops and Air Force and an Indian Air Force parachute brigade.Eight special forces units comprising 60 Russian and 60 Indian paratroopers took part in the active phase of the exercise in the Pskov Region.
Posted October 19th, 2007 by Nksagar
